39. Samuel Palmer
(1805-1881)
The Early Plowman or The Morning Spread Upon the Mountains

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Palmer, Early Plowman

The Early Plowman or The Morning Spread Upon the Mountains

Etching, 1861-79, Lister 9 v/ix, 169 x 243 mm. Fine impression on laid paper, trimmed to or just inside the platemark on three sides, a small margin at the left, but with ample white space outside the image all around, from a published edition, probably one of the Hamerton volumes. Palmer essentially defines the “pastoral” print in British printmaking, establishing a tradition that goes on almost to the present day (Griggs, early Graham Sutherland, Paul Drury, Robin Tanner and others). But it is not just subject matter that defines the tradition. Sutherland has described his first encounter with a Palmer etching as being almost overwhelmed by the luminosity of the print. Here, as in most Palmer etchings, the light does not come only from its obvious source, but somehow sparkles throughout the composition, even in the depths of the darkest areas. No one had really made prints like this before.